Second Week in Buenos Aires

Hello again everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well! Nikki and I are still loving our time in Buenos Aires! Our Spanish classes are going very well, and we have both noticed significant improvements in our Spanish! Nikki quickly moved out of the beginner Spanish class and into the basic class, class 2 out of 6, after the first week. Her understanding of Spanish was already very high due to knowing French, and her speaking has continued to improve. Nikki and I can now easily have full conversation in Spanish, which we do anytime we are out of the house. Whenever we leave the house to go to school or to dinner or anywhere, we try to only speak in Spanish in order to blend in better and just to practice. It has worked out very well so far.

I, Colter, have also moved up a class since being here. I started in the 3^rd out of 6 classes and this last Monday I moved up to the 4^th class. I am feeling much more confident in speaking and can easily understand and communicate with just about everyone we interact with. There have been multiple occasions when Nikki and I were talking with someone in Spanish and they stop to complement us on our Spanish. This of course makes our day because learning Spanish is one of our main goals of the trip!

Over the past week we have continued to see more beautiful places here! We have been to the two most famous museums, walked around a large ecological reserve, visited the most famous cemetery in Argentina and partied like the locals. The two most famous museums are the Museum of Latin American Art (the MALBA) and the Museo National de Bellas Artes, an art museum showing a wide variety of art from different time periods. We first visited the MALBA with our Spanish school and loved seeing both the paintings and the visual art installations. Our favorite was an optical illusion of a pool that looked like a normal deep pool from the top, but we were able to walk around and enter the pool from the bottom. In reality the artist used glass and only a couple of inches of water to create the illusion.

The Museo National de Bellas Artes was a larger museum that housed a mixure of paintings and sculptures. The paintings ranged from 13^th century French and Italian painting to modern art created by local Argentinian painters. We both loved seeing the wide range of art, but our favorites were a couple of paintings by Monet and van Gogh.

On the same day as visiting the Museo National de Bellas Artes, we walked through the Cemetario de Recoleta, the most famous cemetery in Argentina. This cemetery was amazing because all the people buried there are buried in extravagant mausoleums! These mausoleums were amazingly elaborate and varied both in size and grandeur. Most of the mausoleums were made of cut granite or marble and stood 10 to 15 feet tall but others were built to resemble Greek temples or modern style houses. While we enjoyed seeing these ornate tombs, we loved learning about the stories behind the people buried there. Only the rich and famous of Argentina are buried there and some of these people include past presidents and their families, famous writers, artists and scientists. The most famous tomb is that of Eva Peron. She was a former First Lady of Argentina and the people loved her! She came from a life of poverty and became the lady of the people. She became the face of Argentina until her death in 1952. In the cemetery, many Argentinians come to pay their respects to her.

One afternoon we ventured to a local ecological reserve close to our apartment. The reserve is just on the edge of the financial district and boarders the Rio Plata. The reserve has a beautiful trail where we walked and were able to see multiple varieties of birds and plants. We even saw some wild parrots! It was really nice to have a walk through a natural area after living in the dense city for two weeks.

This past weekend we decided to go to a dance club with some of the friends we met at the school. One of these friends has a girlfriend who lives in Buenos Aires and wanted to show us the nightlife from a local’s prospective. By that, she meant that the locals here party all night long! We only started the night at 11 pm with a small party at our apartment. After playing a couple of games we took a taxi to a hidden bar called a speakeasy. This bar was hidden behind a false wall in a café but once we were inside, it opened up to a large upscale bar! We had amazing drinks there and chatted with our friends. At 2 am we finally left the speakeasy and headed for the dance club. Upon entering the club, we realized how many young people go dancing on a Saturday night! The club was full of people dancing to Argentinian pop music. To Nikki and I, all the music sounded exactly the same but it was easy to dance to. We danced until 4:30! We finally had to stop when we were too tired to continue. From the club, everyone took a taxi back to their place to try and get to bed before the sun rose. We finally got home around 5 am right as the sun was rising. Since we had been dancing all night, we were both extremely hungry, so we made a quick meal of ravioli and ate as we watched the sunrise. We got into bed at 5:30 and immediately fell asleep until 2 pm. We were so tired the next day, but we had a fun time! We did decide that the late nights of going out to a club are not our thing. We now know we prefer to have a nice dinner, maybe a drink or two at a bar but then go to bed around midnight instead of 5 am.

We have loved our first two weeks here and are so excited for what we still have left to see! Our truck was delayed one week but it finally set sail today and will be in Buenos Aires on December 26^th! Since it was delayed, Nikki and I decided to go to a beach town for the week of Christmas. So from December 17^th till the 25^th we will be in the beautiful town of Pinamar enjoying a summer Christmas! I know this is normal for everyone in South Africa, but it will be a new experience for us. We are thinking of everyone and hope everyone is having a great December! Love, Nikki and Colter!